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War-Ballads 

and 

Verses 



Third Series 







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BY 

William Hathorn Mills 



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Dedicated to Our Men-at-Arms 



WAR-BALLADS 

and 

VERSES 



Third Series 



BY 
WILLIAM HATHORN MILLS 



San Bernaidino, California 

THE BARNUM & FLAGG COMPANY 

1918 

Copyright 



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NOV 21 !9I8 

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A Battle Prayer 

OLord of war, our armies fight 
Against a ruthless tyranny; 
Strengthen, we pray, with Thine Own might 
Their hearts, and give them victory. 

O Prince of peace, bring in thro' war 

The peace of God — peace all divine — 

And may that peace for evermore 

Keep us at one with Thee and Thine. 



Foreword 

This third series of War-Ballads collects some 
published leaflets and odd bits of verse, omitted in 
the earlier series, and adds some later verses. It 
completes a set of booklets published mainly for dis- 
tribution to our fighting men. The writer, a septua- 
genarian, must now hand on the torch. 



Contents 

Page 

A Battle-Prayer 3 

War 7 

Par Nobile 8 

Huns 9 

Quousque ? 11 

Blasphemy 12 

The Hymn of Hate 12 

Crusaders 14 

Romania 15 

Echoes from Tooley Street 15 

For Valour 17 

Number One 18 

The Doom of Ahab 20 

A Self-Accuser 1 20 

A Round Table 21 

Tall Talk 22 

Vive la France 22 

Some Columbian 23 

Grit 23 

Verdun r:..::::: 2J4 

At the Front 2& 

NOTE. — For details of facts see The Bryce Report on al- 
leged German outrages ; Belgians Under the German Eagle, by 
Jean Massart ; German Atrocities, an official investigation, by 
J. H. Morgan ; The New York Evening Sun, August 10, 1914 ; 
The Los Angeles Examiner, June 25, 1917 ; The Los Angeles 
Times, January 26, 1918 ; The Bookman, March, 1918. 



War 

fcfc\ii/AR" — 'twas a soldier spoke— "is hell"; 
VV Aye, and yet Heaven itself once knew 
War, when the hosts of Michael 

Fought with the Dragon and his crew. 

War waged by fiends is devilry; 

It's sin and pain and nothing more; 
But angels, too, fight ceaselessly, 

And their war is a holy war. 

"I came not to bring peace on earth, 

But war", proclaimed Creation's Lord; 

As travail-pangs shape for the birth, 
His peace is fashioned by the sword. 

All human wars make misery — 

Anguish that Heaven alone can heal; 

Yes, but from out the agony 

Spring better things; woe leads to weal. 

The conscience of the world acquires 
A truer sense of what should be: 

Learns to desire what Right desires: 
Learns to love peace and unity. 

And in the end Right conquers Might; 

It casts down tyranny and pride; 
The fight is long, but there is light. 

The light of peace, at even-tide. 

Nor that alone; for they may win, 
Who fight for Truth and Liberty, 



8 

As taught by war's stern discipline, 
A loftier humanity. 

They, who in peace were ne'er-do-weels, 
In war see what they were; and then 

A something to their hearts appeals, 

That conquers self, and makes them men. 

The sense of duty. Honour's claims. 

The spirit of camaraderie. 
The tempers born of noble aims, 

Are as constraints to chivalry. 

Under the storm of shot and shell 

They find their comrades staunch and true; 
It lifts them — ah, if war be hell. 

It is a purgatory too. 

Evil is in the world, and, till 

Cast out by war, must vex our life; 

The Cross meant war; it means it still, 
But means, too, victory in the strife. 

Par Nohile Fratrum 

(Written for the British- American League, Los 
Angeles.) 

STAND side by side, John Bull 
And Jonathan, 
Serving a dutiful 

Service of man. 
Union is strength; thus strong, 

In the long fight 
Waged between Right and Wrong, 
Stand for the Right. 



stand up for world-wide peace, 

For Liberty; 
Let your names spell surcease 

Of tyranny. 
Eid every little State 

Of the grim fear 
That foes may violate 

All it holds dear. 

Let your twin navies keep 

Watch o'er the sea, 
And make the vasty deep 

A highway free — 
Free to all argosies 

Bearing their stores 
Of foods and merchandise 

To far-off shores. 

So shall your influence. 

Your banded might, 
Work, under Providence, 

A reign of Right. 
So shall the world become 

A Unity, 
And every hearth and home 

A sanctuary. 



Huns 

THEY murder babes, shame women, loot. 
Use poisonous gases, liquid fire. 
Asphyxiating shells, and shoot 

Prisoners, to glut their lust and ire. 



10 

They mutilate and insult the slain 
With foul and hideous outrages, 

Torpedo harmless liners, rain 

Bombs on defenceless villages. 

Women and children, roped, are made 
Screens for their firing companies; 

Red Cross and White Flag hang displayed 
O'er their machine-guns as disguise. 

Liars and — ^well, there's mystery 

In their idea that other souls 
Will take what's a transparent lie 

For truth, the same not being moles. 

No form of "frightfulness", it seems- 
Is practised by these sons of blood — 

No horror mocking nightmare-dreams — 
But Kultur proves it right and good. 

Kultur ? Such culture is of hell ; 

It's all a blend of sophistries 
And lies, a creed most infidel, 

A cult of Mephistopheles. 

The Pharisees were by holy lips 

Called Hypocrites in days of yore; 

Prussian hypocrisies eclipse 

All theirs, and, I guess, a thousand more. 

One crowning act of infamy 

Challenged them, and to them seemed good; 
An English nurse, they said, must die. 

She died. They shot her in cold blood. 



11 

This is the race that claims to be 

God's choice, God's glory, and God's crown. 
Ah Heaven, avenge the blasphemy, 

And cast this brood of monsters down. 



Quousque Tandem? 

IT seemed as tho' the Huns had reached 
The summit of their infamies 
When they shot Nurse Cavell, and preached 
A gospel of atrocities. 

They hadn't; it yet remained to wreck 
And sink — not trading ships alone, 

But — floating hospitals, nor reck 

That half the wounded were their own. 

As for the foul obscenities 

That marked the track of their retreat, 
Apes would have scorned such acts as these; 

Fiends had disdained such dirty feet. 

Viler atrocities, and yet 

More vile, continually swell 
The tale of their offence, and set 

New records on the charts of hell. 

The wonder is that all the world. 

From North to South, from West to East, 
Has not arisen in wrath, and hurled 

Destruction on the abysmal Beast. 



12 



Blasphemy 

THEY knew their emperors were but men — 
And often brutes at that, 
Who rose to power thro' blood, and then 

On blood and groans grew fat — 
Yet servile Romans deified 

Those emperors, and gave 

Then honours, such as crazy pride 

Alone could seek or crave. 

Even Napoleon, tho' he thought, 

In mad pursuit of fame. 
To rule the wide world, never sought 

Such blasphemous acclaim. 
But German bards now bend their knees. 

In rank idolatry. 
And call their Kaiser "Prince of Peace", 

Nor reck the blasphemy. 

Aye, and they name him "Lord of War" — 

A title all divine, 
And think their hordes, with him as Thor, 

Will "conquer in that sign". 
Whose is the fault? His, or the crew's, 

That vaunts his majesty? 
We know not, but we tell that Muse 

Her blasphemy is a lie. 

"The Hymn of Hate*' 

'^11 ELL has no fury like a woman scorned" — 
nThe poet must have scorned some dame, I 
fear — 



13 

That's Prussia's temper now, who, tho' forewarned. 
Would not believe the warning, would not hear. 

She nursed the fond illusion in her soul 

That Britain's heart was set on world-wide rule; 

She wished to share that first, then grasp the whole, 
And so she broke the peace. purblind fool ! 

She thought that Britons would stand idly by, 

While upon Frank and Slav she worked her will; 

Then she would rest awhile; then, by and by, 

Britain would have to pass thro' the same mill. 

What made her think of Heaven as glad to be 

Her tool? What robbed her of all common 
sense ? 

What bade her lie, and reckon it piety ? 
Just this — a mad lust of omnipotence. 

Treaties to her were scraps of paper, worth 

As bonds and pledges something less than 
naught; 

That Might is Right, that lordship of the earth 

Is hers by right divine — that was her thought. 

Therefore, when Britain kept her blighted word 
To Belgium, and refused the proffered bait, 

Britons became to her a race abhorred; 

Her feigned affection turned to rancorous hate. 

That was the inspiration of the hymn 

That rants of English lies and perfidy. 

That reckons God a Hun, and calls on Him 
To punish England for her treachery. 



14 

Read in this light it is a hymn of praise, 

A testimonial, a certificate 
Of blameless character, a creed that says 

"Falsehood we love; Honour and Truth we hate". 



Crusaders 

A RED CROSS UNIT left, on dit,* 
^ America for France, 
Owing Asclepios, it might be 
Supposed, allegiance. 

What did they do when they got there ? 

Did they request the Chief 
To use them anyhow, anywhere. 

In ministries of relief? 

Not they. As tho' an urgent call 
Claimed them for instant war. 

They promptly 'listed, one and all. 
In the French Flying Corps. 

I told the tale, half doubtfully. 

To an old invalid, 
A strong religionist; his reply 

Came back crisp as a creed. 

"A very proper spirit", he said; 

"Quite the right thing to do"; 
And, as he spoke, his aged head 

Wagged its full sanction too. 



15 

O Red Cross Unit, I'm inclined 

To think you must have had 
A notion in your conjoint mind 

That was not wholly bad. 

* — at the members' own cost, and before America 
entered the war. 

Romania 

FOUNDED, some eighteen hundred years ago, 
By Trajan, as a Roman colony 
To guard one frontier of his empery 
From inroads of the Asiatic foe — 
That was your birth, Romania, and, tho' 

O'erswept by wave on wave of savagery, 
Still have you kept unbroke your unity, 
And risen again from wrack and overthrow. 
To-day you fight for what you deemed to be, 
Aye, and what is, the Right, and, tho' betrayed 
And wronged, have never flinched, never backed 
down. 
Courage, brave heart! Fight on, and you shall see 
Your hopes fulfilled, your sacrifice repaid, 
And your true heritage made all your own. 

August 23, 1917. 

Echoes from Tooley Street 

' ' \M E, the people of all England'" — thus import- 
' » antly began 
Some demand that claimed all England's voice 
as its authority: 



16 

Something that professed to better Magna Charta's 
scope and plan. 
Well, and what men, and how many, signed the 
paper? Tailors three. 

Cheek unique? Well, no; we've got a talker who 
can match the three — 
Nay, can go one better than they went in calm 
effrontery; 
"We will", or "We will not" — thus he speaks, im- 
plying that the "We" 
Comes from Uncle Sam concentred in his per- 
sonality. 

"We will send our boys", he says, "to fight for Eng- 
land only when 
She has rallied hers — ^her slackers: there are 
half a million here. 
Aye, and more at home — reserves magnificent of 
fighting men". 
"We" — ^that is, he claims to voice the will of half 
a hemisphere. 

Not for England is the battle, not for Belgium, not 
for France; 
Not for any single nation do the war-drums beat 
their roll; 
'Tis the whole world's need that, clamant, bids Amer- 
ica "Advance", 
And its battle-cries are "Justice: Freedom: 
Peace: from nole to pole". 

Aye, and she has come to know it, and is arming for 
the fray; 



17 

Not for this_ State, nor for that State, is she 
marshalling her war; 
Voices as of many waters call her, and her actions 
say 
That which bids all lesser voices hold their peace 
for evermore. 



For Valour 

r^EORGE WILSON, newsboy, who had been 
^^ A soldier, and had served his time, 
Rejoined the Colours, being keen 

To prove he hadn't passed his prime. 

He hadn't; he was at his best; 

Aye, and that best was good indeed; 
The issue made him manifest 

As stark in fight and staunch in need. 

Hard by Verneuil, his company 

By a machine-gun was annoyed; 

He made his mind up speedily 

That the pom-pom must be destroyed. 

So, with one comrade, this true son 
Of Mars set out on his design; 

His mate soon fell; Wilson went on 
Until he reached the firing-line. 

He shot seven men who worke^l the gun, 
Seized it, and turned it on the foe, 

Till, all its ammunition done. 

He reckoned that it was time to go. 



18 

That wasn't all; as he began 

To start upon his homeward tramp, 
He spied a wounded rifleman, 

And bore him safely back to camp. 

What further? Later wounds, alack! 

Disabled him from acts of war; 
So to his old trade he went back, 

And sells newspapers as before. 

His life is now a peaceful life; 

Aye, but he wears a memory 
Of how he bore him. in the strife — 

A bronze cross formy — the V. C. 



Number One 

'*\X/E'VE had soft soap, a lot of it, too much of 
VV it"— he said— 
"Tall talk of England's glory, and the winning 
of the war; 
"What we want now" — it came to this — "is beef and 
beer and bread. 
And talk of England's glory is just soap, and 
nothing more". 

selfish soul and sordid, have you ever laid to heart 
What glory means to England? You reckon it 
renown 
In war, but battle-glory is glory but in part, 

And the glory of Old England is a spiritual 
crown. 



19 

Aye, it reflects the glory that rests upon the Cross, 

Or that which painters picture in the halo of a 

Saint; 

It's the glory of an honour, that chooses rather loss 

Than gain won thro' dishonour, gain that's 

smirched by stain or taint: 

It stands in the fulfilment of every promise plight: 
In the service of the duties to which each soul is 
born; 
It takes for rules of conduct the high laws of Truth 
and Eight; 
It champions the weak, and laughs fainthearted- 
ness to scorn. 

Redress of wrongs, world-peace secured against ty- 
rannic Might, 
The weal of little peoples, the bright lamp of 
Freedom lit — 
This is what England seeks that she may keep her 
honour bright; 
This is the glory that she craves, and you — you 
mock at it! 

You want your wages raised. Ah well, compare the 
wage you get 
With the pittance of the soldier who is fighting 
for your homes; 
You are of those who suffer least, and Justice will, 
you bet, 
Lesson you pretty sternly when the day of reck- 
oning comes. 



20 

Don't dare to speak of England, as tho' in any way 
You represented what she is, or wills that you 
should be; 
Speak for yourself, and for your mates maybe, but 
do not lay 
Upon your souls the added guilt of a foul blas- 
phemy. 

The Doom of Ahab 

AHAB served Baal, and thereby 
Made Israel to sin; 
He was for his iniquity 

Cut off with all his kin. 

Wilhelm, the self-idolator. 

Makes Germany to sin; 
He dooms to Ahab's doom therefore 

Himself, and all his kin. 

The greater power, the greater sin, 

The greater punishment — 
Aye, and the larger; kith and kin 

May share the chastisement. 

Bane of the Hohenzollern line, 

Wilhelm, thy race is run; 
And — word of doom to thee and thine — 

Thy record is, "111 done". 

A Self-Accuser 

HE talks of Russia's tyranny. 
Of France on vengeance bent, 
Of England's shameless treachery, 
And counts it argument. 



21 

He but imputes himself; each lie 
Reflects his own foul guilt; 

His acts repeat the indictment^aye, 
And prove it to the hilt. 

And yet he claims that history 
Will clear him of all blame; 

Nay, it will lay Cain's infamy, 
Cain's brand, upon his name. 

E'en now the fell Erinyes 

Are hard upon his track; 
They hunt him — ^hell's winged huntresses, 

And who shall call them back? 



A Round Table 

OR ever the world-war began. 
Wall-maps, designed for use in schools, 
Showed on one sheet the whole earth's span, 
And on it Britain, blazoned gules. 

They taught, those maps, that Britain meant- 
Not the small British isles alone. 

But — a world-empire, whose content 
Embraced five nations, blent in one. 

What then was true, is yet more true 

As thing are now; Great Britain still. 

And Greater Britain, mean not two 

Britains, but one — one folk, one will. 

Gules, that is, rose-red — mystic hue 
Of love, of beauty, of emprize 



22 

To champion innocence, and renew 

The fruits and flowers of Paradise. 

That is the temper that unites 

Them of the British family 
In one great fellowship of Knights, 

Who stand for Right and Liberty. 

Tall Talk 

^'r^UR iron will" — the Reichstag's President 

^Said — "shall turn into deeds". 
Nay; the Hun will, and all its foul intent. 
Shall be as broken reeds. 

"The sharp steel of" — ^what he was pleased to call- 

"The clean sword in our hands 
Shall hew the way to fortune" — shall grab all. 

That is, earth's seas and lands. 

For bombast and for braggadocio 

That well might take the cake; 
It would perhaps, but that, if it were so. 

The Kaiser's heart would break. 

Vive la France! 

FAIR France", we said; "Fair France", we say; 
Still fair despite the outraging foe; 
The beauty that is hers to-day 

Is not a thing of outward show. 

Beauty of pluck, of chivalry, 

Of self-devotion, of romance — 
All this is hers, and bids us say, 

"Ah, qu'elle est belle! Ah, la belle France"! 



23 



Some Columbian 

HE'D got his pom-pom just about 
Rigged up upon its stand, 
When a bit of shrapnel found him out, 
And took off his right hand. 

The Huns were passing out of range, 
And it filled his soul with ire. 

For with one hand he couldn't change 
His pom-pom's line of fire. 

What could he do ? With his left hand 

He drew his pocket-gun, 
And shot till that indignant band 

Came back toi spoil his fun. 

Then his machine-gun spoke, and threw 
Death at them till they fled — 

All that could flee — a scattered crew, 
For most of them were dead. 

Two mates, brought by a happy chance, 
Found him, afaint with pain; 

They got him to the Ambulance, 
And he wants to fight again. 

Grit 

THE stretcher-bearers searched one night 
A battle-field in France 
To bring men wounded in the fight 

Back to the Ambulance; 
'Twas grim work; all around were lying 
Wounded and helpless, dead and dying. 



24 

They came to a sore-wounded Kelt, 
Paused, looked at him, and said, 

"He's dead"; but, as one stooped and felt 
The corpse, it muttered, "Dead! 

Not I; and" — ^the voice grew almost strident- 

"I'm hanged if I mean to die". He didn't. 



Verdun 

"/^N ne passe pas". They shall not pass, 

^For France has barred the way, 
What tho' their legions, mass on mass, 
Batter her fenced array.' 

"On ne passe pas". They shall not pass; 

Ere they can reach their goal, 
French guns shall mow them down like grass. 

And shake their tyrant's soul. 

"On ne passe pas". They shall not pass; 

Force cannot break a will. 
Whose motto, "Toujours de I'audace", 

Makes France unconquered still. 

"On ne passe pas". They shall not pass; 

A mightier defence 
Than bars of steel and gates of brass 

Defies their insolence. 

"On ne passe pas". They shall not pass; 

Heroes of long-ago , 
By blood-bond, by I'esprit de race. 

Summoned, confront the foe. 



25 



"On ne passe pas". They shall not pass; 

Roland is here, and mark, 
Where gleam her morion and cuirass, 

A vision of Jeanne d'Arc. 

"On ne passe pas". They shall not pass; 

Not France alone says "Nay"; 
The sword that turned the prophet's ass 

Is drawn for her to-day. 



"On ne passe pas". They shall not pass; 
The way by which they 
11 see them hurrying bac 
In terror and in shame. 



The way by which they came 
Shall see them hurrying back, Dieu g'l'ace, 



At the Front 

^ ^ A DVANCE, America, Advance" — 

^That was the call that rang. 
Thundered from Belgium and from France 
By battle-roar and clang. 

The Great Republic heard, and yet 

Held back from day to day. 
What made her pause as loth to set 

Her battle in array ? 

This — that she had not yet one heart, 

One undivided soul; 
Self-centred atoms stood apart, 

And each had its own goal. 



26 

Aye, and old jealousies had place 

In her perplexity; 
Not of one mind, one will, one race, 

Was all her family. 

Peace-prophets preached. Europe's affairs, 
Her wars, her aims, her need — 

These things were no concern of theirs; 
That was their old-time creed. 

Only the witness of events. 

And what men learnt thereby. 

Might weld these jarring elements 
Into a Unity. 

It came. Hearts bowed to Right's demand, 

And, when the war- alarms 
Eang out at last across the land, 

A nation sprang to arms. 

And now not least of those who fight 

To beat the tyrant down. 
Whose battle-words are Truth and Right, 

Columbia holds her own. 

"Advance, America, Advance; 

Come to the front in all 
That makes for world-deliverance 
From 111". That's Gabriel's call. 



